Many items are widely used as wipes and applicators for wiping or applying substances from or to surfaces such as those on a human, e.g., skin, finger nails, toe nails, or in a human, e.g., internal organs and bones during an operation. Thus, these items are widely used in both medical and non-medical fields. Small cotton or rayon balls, pads or gauzes are perhaps the most widely used items for these purposes on the market today. Small sponges are also widely used items.
In the medical field, these items are used for cleaning the skin and other surfaces, such as the surfaces of internal organs, by the application of a disinfectant or solvent and/or the wiping away of blood and other fluids, including other body fluids, and other materials. The cotton balls, sponges and gauze pads are grasped between the fingers and applied to the area of concern to wipe away or apply fluids or other materials. One problem with this prior art approach is that the fingers frequently become contaminated with the fluid or other materials that can act as a conduit to transfer the contamination to other people or areas. This is especially a problem in view of the fluid borne diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis.
In the cosmetics and personal care fields, these items are widely used to apply and to remove makeup and to apply other personal care products such as lotions, creams and nail polish remover. Unfortunately, the item transfers the makeup or personal care product to the user's fingers which is often undesirable. For example, when a nail polish remover, which is usually acetone based, is being used it can be transferred to the fingers of the hand holding the item. The nail polish remover can harm the nails on the hand holding the item even if removal from these nails was not desired. Also, the nail polish remover can undesirably remove nail polish from a finger nail adjacent to the finger from which the nail polish is being removed. Also, the transfer can result in a waste of the makeup or personal care product.
These items are often amorphous in that they have no defined shape and therefore no defined edges. Thus, these items are not ideally suited to apply or wipe materials to or from surfaces that have an arcuate edge, e.g., finger nails, and from surfaces that have straight edge, e.g., the edge formed between the nose and cheek. Other items only have arcuate or straight edges and are not very effective when surfaces having a different shape are encountered.
One example of the prior art approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,242, entitled "Disposable Product Applicator and Dispensing Package Therefor", issued Oct. 11, 1977 to Mast, Jr. This patent discloses a combination of an applicator and a dispensing package wherein the applicator, described as a generally T-shaped disposable product applicator, with a pad portion of the applicator being capable of being folded upon itself which in folded condition lies flat and has a substantially uniform thickness so that it can be stacked in a dispensing container. When removed from the container, the pad portion of each applicator will automatically unfold and assume a product applying configuration. When the applicator pad portion is in its folded condition, the product application surface of the applicator is folded upon itself, and the product which is on or impregnated in the applying surface of the applicator will be protected from contamination.
Another example of applicators is illustrated in the Jones, Sr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,784,998, entitled "Composition Applicator", and its companion case U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,939 having substantially identical disclosures. These patents both disclose a pad, one of which is a sponge, the other of which is made of multiple sheets, both disclosed as having a generally hexagonal configuration, with a pair of coplanarly disposed applicator support sheets, both of which are slit, with the upper sheet being foldable to serve as a handle, and the second sheet to act as a shield sheet.
The Gilchrist U.S. Pat. No. Re. 26,385, issued May 7, 1968, discloses a liquid and paste applicator formed by sheets of foam, with a top sheet 26 foldable upward as shown in FIG. 2 to form a handle or hand grip.
The Clay U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,404 discloses a disposable sponge having a planar body portion and a pair of upstanding rib members spaced close enough that they may be grasped and squeezed against each other by the hand to form a handle or grip.
It is desirable to have an improved laminated pad suitable for use as an applicator or wipe that overcomes at least some of the aforementioned shortcomings.